Past Projects
© Onozuka Makoto
DIGITAL // REALITY
This was Mai's first experience directing a festival. It was held in Yokohama, Japan on the 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th October 2021 at the NPO Koganecho Area Management Center, with performances by Mai's butoh mentor Uesugi Mitsuyo, a performance by former students of the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, screenings of films by international butoh artists courtesy of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute and screenings of Ohno Kazuo's A Portrait of Mr. O, courtesy of NPO Dance Archive Network.
Tokyo Real Underground
Mai was the English translator for this project, and also worked as part of the production team.
Tokyo Real Underground festival was a butoh-inspired dance festival set in underground locations in Tokyo run by NPO Dance Archive Network. Selected as one of the "Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13", a cultural festival organised in conjunction with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it was originally planned as an in-person festival for an international audience. With the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, it was re-designed as an online, bilingual dance festival which ran between April-August 2021.
For more information in English or Japanese:
http://www.tokyorealunderground.net/english/
International Agatha Christie Festival
Mai was the Associate Producer for this festival.
The Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay was celebrated for the first time with an international twist in 2017. Directed by James Tyson (2017-2019) and based at Torre Abbey, this new version of the festival aimed to see Agatha Christie the woman behind the books; an enthusiastic traveller, whose visits abroad inspired many settings for her books. The festival brought together lecturers and enthusiasts, along with new artists from all over the world.
For more information:
https://www.iacf-uk.org
© Guy Dartnell
3 Stages for Lazarus
Mai was the producer for this performance, which was shown at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings in July 2015 and at JW3 in London as part of the Suspense Puppetry Festival 2015.
Combining live puppetry, acting, music, and using the story of Lazarus (minus Jesus), 3 Stages for Lazarus explored issues of life, death, illness, transformation, and investigates notions of creativity. It was written by master puppeteer Christopher Leith, who sadly passed away a couple of weeks before the performance at the Suspense Puppetry Festival after living with Motor Neurones Disease for 3 years. This project was as much about the development of Christopher as an artist with a degenerative illness and how his creative ideas continue to have a voice.
For more information:
http://www.facebook.com/ChristopherLeith.Lazarus/
http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/tag/the-3-stages-of-lazarus
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/nov/08/3-stages-for-lazarus-review-puppetry-christopher-leith
Henry V
Mai was the Master of Shadows for this performance, which was shown at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Tanner Street in summer 2015.
Directed by Ben Crystal, Passion in Practice's Henry V was performed in OP (original pronounciation) to a sell-out audience at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as part of the Globe Education's Shakespeare inspired season.
For more information:
http://www.passioninpractice.com/productions/henry-v-in-op/
International Performance Festival Cardiff
Mai was the Co-ordinator for this festival.
The International Performance Festival Cardiff was celebrated for the first time in 2014. Hosted by Chapter Arts Centre, it brought together both international and local artists over a three-week period. Each of these artists brought with them work that was developed in response to certain communities across the world. The festival included workshops, discussions, small and large scale performances in venues ranging from restaurants in the city to Chapter Arts Centre itself.
© Simona Fossi
Aomori Project
Mai was the interpreter, one of the dancers, and contributor to the producing, stage managing and marketing of this project on three of its international tours in 2013-2014.
Performed by a company of dancers from across the world, Japanese Tsuguru shamisen-players and a Minyo singer, Aomori Project was a dance project choreographed and conceptualised by Sioned Huws. Inspired by the landscapes of Aomori in Japan and Snowdonia in Wales, the piece explores ideas of memory, place and movements of everyday.
For more information in English, Welsh & Japanese:
http://sionedhuws.net/aomori/
© Jorge Lizalde
Who Killed the Elephant / A Dialogue
Mai worked as Assistant Producer on this evening of events, and also performed in A Dialogue.
Who Killed the Elephant / A Dialogue was an event of live arts, including theatre, short film and two performance texts held at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. The centre piece, Who Killed the Elephant is an award-winning play be Vee Leong which rethinks such concepts as discipline, mass, identity, state surveillance and development in Hong Kong. The evening began and ended with performance texts A Dialogue, and two short films.